Mud, Mud, and More Mud screamed the headline in the local Iowa City paper. Of course, he could have been writing about the thousands of farm acres left bare that I drove by on my way here from St. Louis. He was referring instead to Day Two of Jingle Cross Rock.
The reporter got it right; even the concrete was muddy. And a lot of it could have been rideable except that there were may off-cambor sections designed to be technical in dry conditions, and if you did attempt to ride the cake batter mud, your bike was rendered unrideable.
So I did a running race yesterday in full kit, cycling shoes, and carrying my bike. Frozen to the bone despite embrocation, not warmed up because of a broken pin on my trainer, wet from the rain, and genuinely jumpy to start the race, I lined up behind eventual race leader Teal-stetson Lee. Thanks to my erroneous eight points earned in a UCI C1 race earlier in the season contested under identical conditions, I got a call up!
The start was typically fast and elbowy. Ladies went down in the first turn, in the second straight away, on the second turn, into the tape. It was as if the mud was just reaching up and pulling you down. I managed to stay up right and somewhat "in the race" for the almost the full first lap until a surprise corner on gravel sent me super-manning. It had to be the gravel, right? My chain off, knees bleeding, I jumped right back on Lynsky and fought for my current position until the end. Mud, Mud, and More Mud.... Round and round three times only because of how slow the course was running. I was once again thankful for something during Thanksgiving weekend.
Vital Statistics: 12th place, 3:36 behind the winner. In the points and the $$
